The Republicans don’t have a leg to stand on in regards to much of anything these days. They don’t have winning policy, they can’t get much of anything accomplished, and they continually seek to stir up controversy because they know they don’t have any success to boast about.

One of those “scandals” that Republicans have been using to manufacture controversy is their claim that Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration were somehow responsible for the terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11/12. They are exploiting the deaths of four Americans for as long as they can to rile up their base and garner anger against former Secretary of State Clinton in her quest for the White House. This was admitted by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. He admitted that the witch-hunt going after Hillary on Benghazi was purely to deflate her chances at the presidency:

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would’ve known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen.”

House Benghazi Committee chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) then claimed that Hillary Clinton was sending “classified” emails with her private email account. Even writing a lengthy letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking minority member on the Benghazi committee.

Here’s the thing, Trey Gowdy has just been proven a liar, and not just called one by the Democrats, but proven so by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Cummings sent his own letter back to Gowdy regarding his false accusations surrounding Clinton’s emails, and demands Gowdy give Clinton the apology she deserves:

“On October 7, 2015, you sent me a 13-page letter making a grave new accusation against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Specifically, you accused her of compromising national security and endangering lives.

The problem with your accusation—as with so many others during this investigation—is that you failed to check your facts before you made it, and the CIA has now informed the Select Committee that you were wrong. I believe your accusations were irresponsible, and I believe you owe the Secretary an immediate apology.

It appears that your letter was rushed out to the press to counter the public firestorm caused by Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s stark admission that Republicans are using millions of taxpayer dollars to damage Secretary Clinton’s bid for president. However, your letter only provided further evidence of this fact.

In your letter on October 7, 2015, you stated that Secretary Clinton received an email from Sidney Blumenthal on March 18, 2011, that included the name of someone who purportedly provided information to the CIA. You asserted that this information was classified, arguing that Secretary Clinton “received classified information from Blumenthal—information she should have known was classified at the time she received it.” You then alleged:

Armed with that information, Secretary Clinton forwarded that email to a colleague—debunking her claim that she never sent any classified information from her private email address.

In your letter, you went to great lengths to highlight the gravity of your accusation, stating:

This information, the name of a human source, is some of the most protected information in our intelligence community, the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but human lives.

To further inflate your claim, you placed your own redactions over the name of the individual with the words, “redacted due to sources and methods.” To be clear, these redactions were not made, and these words were not added, by any agency of the federal government responsible for enforcing classification guidelines.

Predictably, commentators began repeating your accusations in even more extreme terms, suggesting in headlines for example that “Clinton Burns CIA Libya Contact.”

Contrary to your claims, the CIA yesterday informed both the Republican and Democratic staffs of the Select Committee that they do not consider the information you highlighted in your letter to be classified. Specifically, the CIA confirmed that “the State Department consulted with the CIA on this production, the CIA reviewed these documents, and the CIA made no redactions to protect classified information.”

Unfortunately, you sent your letter on October 7 without checking first with the CIA. Now that we have done so, we have learned that your accusations were incorrect.

As a result of your actions, the State Department yesterday asked the Select Committee not to reveal the individual’s name publicly, not for classification reasons, but to protect the individual’s privacy and avoid bringing additional undue attention to this person.

Unfortunately, the standard operating procedure of this Select Committee has become to put out information publicly that is inaccurate and out of context in order to attack Secretary Clinton for political reasons. These repeated actions bring discredit on this investigation and undermine the integrity of the Select Committee and the House of Representatives.”

Quite honestly, enough is enough. This committee has spent so much time trying to go after Hillary Clinton to tear her down instead of actually figuring out how to prevent attacks from happening again. They don’t care about the “four dead Americans” — they care about making Clinton look bad. It’s disgusting and a disgrace to those who died serving their country, and these Republicans ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Time and time again Clinton has been cleared of wrongdoing. We need to respect the dead and put this “scandal” to bed. Republicans don’t have anything left but their lies.

Author: SarahSarah is a liberal writer who's been writing and commenting on politics for over 5 years as the Opinionated Democrat on Facebook. She is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the online satirical publication Free Wood Post.